Chase Hoover Ms. Root English 3 3-1-2023 The short story Author Isabel Allende, uses her two short stories The School Teachers Guest and The Gold of Tomas Vargas to connect similar themes together. These similar themes include Obsession, Power and Justice. While Allende uses the same themes in her works, she explores each one of them through a different avenue. This essay will be further expanding on these subjects, as well as the similarities and differences in the stories. Obsession is one of the main themes in both of these short stories. In the Gold of Tomas Vargas, Tomas buries his gold and keeps his wealth in the ground. Over time Tomas’s greed and wealth builds up to a point where he isnt willing to support his wife and children …show more content…
In The School Teachers Guest Power is portrayed through the main character Ines. Ines is a School Teacher who has many connections with everyone around town. “she was counselor, arbiter, and judge in all the town's problems. Her authority, in fact, was mightier than that of the priest, the doctor, or the police”.(3) In this quote we are shown just how Powerful she is in her community. She is praised more than high level citizens and everyone in town looks up and respects her. Because of her Power she eventually gets away with the act of killing her son’s killer. Power in The Gold of Tomas Vargas is shown in a completely different light. Tomas is a very wealthy man which gives him a lot of Power, however he is hated by everyone and has no connections. “although his good fortune did nothing to mitigate his miserliness or his scrounging.(1) Even though this man had all the Power he wanted he was still miserable because he didnt have anyone close to him. A life without friends and family isnt a life worth living at all and Tomas brings this to an extreme. Allende uses Power in both these stories to contrast its usefulness in different situations. In The School Teachers Guest we are able to see the good use of Power in the way Ines uses it. Ines is able to get away with a reprisial act due to her personal connections. However in The Gold of Tomas Vargas we are shown some Power isnt able to be used in a useful …show more content…
In The Gold of Tomas Vargas Tomas leads a life of deception, immorality, and indecency. Because Tomas lives his life this way eventually Justice is served along the road. “someone brought the news that his mutilated body had been found in the very ravine where he had hidden his treasure. He had been quartered with a machete like a steer,”.(15) This quote shows that even though he led a life full of wealth, when it all came down to it Justice was served for all the years of neglect for the people around him. When Justice caught up to the man, the people around him also got a taste of Justice because they didnt have to be under his reign anymore. In The School Teachers Guest however we are shown how Justice can be introduced in a good way. The long awaited killing of Ines’s son's killer is shown to be the good part of Justice, and the aftermath of nothing happening to Ines. “ by a secret kept by good neighbors, one they would guard with absolute zeal and pass down for many years as a legend of justice,...”(5). Since Ines was good to people her whole life she safely got the good part of justice that she deserved. Comparitively speaking we see a difference in the way justice is perceived in each book. On one side it's perceived in a good light whereas the other it's perceived in a bad light. Because of this the viewer is encapsulated in the theme of Justice as a